The Affordable Care Act (ACA) includes numerous reforms to the individual and group health insurance markets, expands Medicaid to more low-income adults, and creates health insurance Marketplaces where subsidies are available to lower the cost of coverage. These changes are designed to increase access to affordable health coverage. This brief examines these coverage provisions, provides an update on how they have been implemented, and assesses their impact.
FRAMEWORK OF THE ACA
Like previous attempts at health care reform, the ACA was structured to address the gaps and limitations of our public-private health insurance system. It builds on employer-based coverage, restructures the individual insurance market, and broadens access to and affordability of coverage by expanding Medicaid for the low-income population and extending tax subsidies for the purchase of private insurance to those with moderate incomes.

On Friday, March 6, 2014, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Alliance for Health Reform host an ACA 101 briefing on the Affordable Care Act. The briefing takes place just as the second marketplace enrollment period ends, and the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a case challenging the law’s subsidies (King v Burwell).

To help reporters understand the national landscape and issues surrounding the Medicaid expansion, KFF holds a web briefing exclusively for journalists with Medicaid experts Laura Snyder and Robin Rudowitz.

The ACA Medicaid expansion has garnered different responses from statelawmakers – Democratics and Republicans as well as governors and legislatures. While it does not cover how every state has enacted the ACA Medicaid expansion, this fact sheet highlights some of the different actions state lawmakers have taken in response to the ACA Medicaid expansion.

This paper presents data on Medicaid spending during the years leading up to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It uses administrative data to first examine overall spending trends and trends by service type. We then draw on additional data to analyze per enrollee spending growth during this period, both by service type and by eligibility group, to understand what drove Medicaid spending.

This fact sheet provides an overview of eligibility levels for parents, other non-disabled adults, children, and pregnant women in Medicaid and CHIP as of January 2015, one year after key Medicaid provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took effect. The findings highlight Medicaid’s expanded role for low-income adults under…